Biodiversity Hotspots, Encyclopedia of Life, and Flies

Life on earth is diverse and humans have always been interested in learning about and using the natural world in many different ways. Today, the so called biodiversity crisis accelerates the extinction of species we know, but also of many species of plants, fungi, or animals we haven't even learned about. Making information about species known to scientists and the public all over the world is the goal of the Encyclopedia of Life, or short EOL, for which I work as a scientist. In order to protect as much of the unique flora and fauna on our planet the NGO Conservation International has proposed biodiversity hotspots that earmark those regions of the world with "... the richest and most threatened reservoirs of plant and animal life on Earth."

You might ask how my research fits into the biodiversity and conservation theme. Let me explain. I am studying the evolutionary history, taxonomy, and biodiversity of three families of flies (= Diptera): flower-loving flies (= Apioceridae), robber flies (= Asilidae), and mydas flies (= Mydidae). In contrast to our extensive knowledge about vertebrates and flowering plants, scientists know relatively little about insect species. This is primarily because there are just so many insect species on our planet and not enough researchers who study them. To give you a sense of how enormous the numbers are, there are more than 7,000 species of robber flies known to science today, and only about 4,500 mammal species.

As part of my research on flies, I give new species binomial names consisting of a genus name and a species name. In this sense, part of my research is directly related to understanding biodiversity because I help identify which species of flies are known, where they occur, and how many flies may still be unknown to scientists. The enormous task of describing unknown species before they become extinct has recently spurred the development of the International Institute of Species Exploration in Tempe, AZ.

In a recent research project, colleagues and I compared the occurrence of robber-fly species in the Cape Floristic Region and Succulent Karoo, which are two adjacent areas at the south-western tip of Africa recognized by Conservation International as biodiversity hotspots. The climate in this part of Africa resembles that of the Mediterranean, which is also found in much of California and north-western Mexico, central Chile and adjacent Argentina, and southern and south-western Australia. All these areas are known for their species richness in flowering plants. For example, some 8,649 species of flowering plants are endemic to the Cape Floristic Region and the Succulent Karoo biodiversity hotspots - meaning that these plant species only occur there, but nowhere else on earth. In addition, 10 amphibian and mammal species are endemic to these two hotspots as well. My colleagues and I were able to show that based on extensive research on the southern African robber-fly fauna over the last 34 years, 134 species are endemic to these two biodiversity hotspots, which represents about 54% of the robber flies known from this particular area of southern Africa. This is a very impressive number of species restricted to these areas, which highlights the fact that robber flies have adapted well to the climatic and other conditions and diversified into numerous species.

So, if we support the conservation and protection of the these hotspots, we will not only be able to admire the beautiful flowers of the ice plants (= Aizoaceae), the magnificent proteas, or the fynbos vegetation at the Cape of Good Hope, we will also protect robber-fly species (and many other species of fungi, plants, and animals) only known from this part of the world.